It being the second Sunday, we are having our (Annual) General Meeting after we worship God.

Last week, I had a chance to attend a certain convention for church leaders. While I was there, I met a lot of pastors. Some of them told me very interesting stories (stories that will very much interest you). One Christian lady used to be an earnest believer in a certain church, but one day, because of her age, she contracted a disease that caused her to forget herself, even the fact that she was a Christian. She started to conduct unchristian practices, like chanting the prayers of other religions, etc. It sounded so sad to me. In another case, there is another lady, who was a long-time Christian missionary in Japan. She also contracted the same disease, but her response was different. She began to forget the time. She tried to come to church at odd times in order to attend prayer meetings and worship times. She would come at any time; even if it was very late at night or early in the morning -- if I ever get this disease, I'd like to be as the second lady. Of course, I cannot blame the first lady. I know that she had been an unbeliever longer than she had been a believer in her life. But hearing those two stories made me reflect on my own Christian walk, and ask myself whether I was really leading the life of a Christian.

We are to keep being Christians through out our lives. Otherwise, we will be tempted easily by the the Ruler of this World (who is Satan). We are to continue praying for one another, loving, waiting on, and even, possibly, teaching each other, for the power of Satan is so strong. We are faced with risk and danger all of the time just by living in this world!

Luke 8:12 tells us: the strongest power of Satan is manifested in seeing people's lack of belief in Christ. Last week, I also checked all of our returned "welcome" cards, and found that almost all of the people they represented remained unbelievers. The seeds are scattered out but, soon afterwards, Satan comes taking away those seeds.

In John 13:12, we see that the main purpose of Satan is to destroy the children of God. So we are to be awake at all times -- so that we can be ready to fight against Satan's attacks.

See what it says in I Peter 5:8: (Because I have been fighting against Satan, I may look terrible today) In order to fight and win the battle, we need to be disciplined. We must be trained! Read verses 14 to 18 of today's passage (Ephesians 6), we need to be armed with faith and the love that comes from God. No matter what kind of miserable situation that we find ourselves in, we are not to allow ourselves to be tempted to complain, or show how beaten up we are by the lack of care to our personal appearances; that is what Satan wants us to do. We are supposed to control our feelings or emotions. Stand firm on faith, otherwise Satan will sneak in and control our inner feelings [and speak untrue words from your lips -- and make you his puppet]. Looking out into the world, I know that lots of young people are trapped by Satan in this way. There is a serious social problem among teenagers here. They are becoming more and more violent. However, yesterday, I found something good in the opening ceremonies of the Nagano Olympics. One of Japan's greatest conductors, Seiji Ozawa, (this man looks like Mr. Takahashii in our church [people laughed here]) led a choir of 5 continents together using satellite broadcasting. It was great to sing together as people made by God. I could imagine Godly people offering their praise to God as one!

A certain pastor once said the length of expectation [?] age of a church is thirty years. He also said, we creatures are now at the point in history where some churches will become smaller and smaller, while others will keep growing. The point of this growth hinges on whether the pastor can be challenged or can keep alive visions given to him [perhaps too through members of his congregation] from God. We cannot continue to the end like we are now [-- we must keep changing]. With the presence and fulfillment of God's Spirit, we are to be [holy:] away from evil thinking, and judging one another, and away from every bad deed that God hates. We are being called to win the victory in the battle of faith.

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
For another sermon see: Oita Evangelical Christ Church
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